Molina’s right hand in the lower categories is Francis Hernandezwho coordinates all the youth teams up to the Under 21. This is how Francis remembers how he developed the game model that Molina chose: “We did a general study of the situation, we kept the good things that were being done and we started to create and develop others to help be one of the best federations in the world in terms of the sports field“, add.
This contextualization entailed meticulous and detailed work for four months until the conclusions were established and the best sports strategy was defined after everything that had been analyzed: “From this study we created this decalogue of intentions and we worked out a game model that born of the historic result that the Selection has had and the natural talent of the Spanish footballer. This combination makes us believe that this is the right path” for Spanish philosophy and culture. Due to the aforementioned cultural differences, this style does not have to be valid for all foreign federations… Each federation must find its own based on sporting and cultural aspects, according to its society and the characteristics of the players.
When the tikitaka of Luis Aragonés is theorized
Based on data, numbers, results and contextualization, the model that has made Spain famous for a decade and a half is theorized. Francis explains this process: “The tikitaka was there and our task was to give it shape through a game model and a player profile. It is represented both on a written and audiovisual level and we work every day to nurture this model and make it better.” In other words, to evolve the style that he once bet on Luis Aragones already 15 years ago. “We are lucky to be able to choose the players with the best profile to represent our model. We may or may not be wrong in the choice, but we do everything looking for maximum efficiency and performance. We understand that this way we will be closer to any goal we set for ourselves”, points out Francis.
Starting from this base and this formula, both in the Selection and in the lower categories “it’s not so much whether a player is the best or not, but whether he perfectly represents our model game There are players who have profiles to represent the model and in their clubs they do different things, and vice versa. All this is reflected in a storage platform for written and audiovisual information (Hudl), which we nurture daily”, says the coordinator of the lower categories of the Federation.